Butler claims PFL's first playoff bid

St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Butler University received the Pioneer
Football League's first-ever automatic qualifying playoff bid on Tuesday.

Butler won a ranking tiebreaker over Marist. The two teams shared the PFL title
after going 7-1 in league games, but they didn't play each other in the
unbalanced scheduling of the 12-member league.

"First I want to congratulate both Butler and Marist on their championships,"
PFL commissioner Patty Viverito said. "It speaks to the high quality of play in
the league this season that we had to use all of our tiebreakers to determine
our automatic qualifier. We look forward to Butler carrying the PFL flag into
the Division I Football Championship for the first appearance by a league
member."

The PFL used the seven computer ratings utilized by the College Sporting News'
Gridiron Power Index to determine the automatic qualifier. Butler (9-3) won
five of the ratings over Marist (8-3).

The PFL chose that tiebreaker over the NCAA's Simple Rating System, which has
yet to be released publicly. The NCAA will announce its 24-team field on
Sunday.